Steve Park Wins Pole for Pepsi 400

Steve Park knew Richard Childress sent a fleet of fast cars to Daytona. He also knew it would be up to him get all the speed he could out of his Chevrolet.

He did his part Thursday night, turning a lap at 184.752 mph around Daytona International Speedway to win the pole for the Pepsi 400.

Park did it in the same car Jeff Green put on the pole for the season-opening Daytona 500. But Green was fired in May by RCR, and Park was fired by Dale Earnhardt Inc. a day later, with the drivers essentially swapping rides.

"I had all the confidence in the world that RCR and Richard could get it done," Park said. "I believed in them just like they believed in me, and I just put my left foot on top of my right foot and went flat out."

Kevin Harvick, Park's teammate at RCR, qualified second for Saturday night's race with a lap at 184.642.

It made for a banner day for RCR, which has struggled since Dale Earnhardt was killed in a wreck in the 2001 Daytona 500. Harvick took over Earnhardt's ride, and has been forced to lead the rebuilding effort.

"It's been tough at times … but we've made a 180-degree turn from what we've had," Harvick said. "Richard is as committed as I've ever seen him. He's enthused about everything we're doing and so am I.

"Whether we are rebuilding or winning, I am going to trust what he says. He'll fix whatever is going wrong."

It looks like Childress is making great strides in turning the corner: Robby Gordon and Harvick finished first and second in California two weeks ago, now the entire RCR fleet is primed for a solid showing Saturday night. Gordon qualified 18th.

"I'm just really proud of everybody at RCR," Childress said. "We struggled a lot just rebuilding everything at RCR the past few seasons. We're getting there. We're getting closer and closer and I think we're closer than we've been in a long time."

For much of qualifying it looked as if Jeff Gordon was going to win the pole. He was one of first cars to make his qualifying run and sat on top of the leaderboard for most of the session with a lap at 184.498.

But late in the session, with just a handful of cars left to run, Park bumped him off the pole and Harvick also jumped ahead of him.

Jeff Gordon ended up third in his Chevrolet.

"We had a good lap and it seemed like we had it, but we also knew the Childress cars would be a factor and we knew the DEI cars would be a factor," he said. "But it's OK. We're going to be good on Saturday night."

Sterling Marlin qualified fourth in a Dodge, then Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip put DEI on the board in fifth and sixth.

The DEI cars are always considered the ones to beat on restrictor-plate race tracks. Earnhardt has won four consecutive races at Talladega, and won the 2001 July race here. And Waltrip is the defending race winner and has taken two of the last three Daytona 500s.

Now RCR has the upper hand, but Park denied bringing any inside information from DEI's restrictor-plate program with him to RCR.

"I think they are called trade secrets and you aren't really supposed to share them," said Park, who was traditionally slower at DEI than Earnhardt and Waltrip. "Even if we had them, I don't think I was getting them so I wouldn't dare bring anything I learned from there to RCR."

Winston Cup points leader Matt Kenseth was not among the 36 fastest qualifiers and will start 37th on a provisional. Rusty Wallace, who blew an engine early in practice and will subsequently start from the rear of the field, also used a provisional.